Defining the subject matter of a contract

When defining the subject matter of a contract, contracting authorities can take into consideration environmental and ethical aspects. The subject matter should be the most reasonable according to environmental and ethical aspects. The efficiency of this action mostly depends on the managers of the contracting authority and consciousness, good will, knowledge, understanding, and skills of their employees. We have to admit that green procurement requires much knowledge about the environmental aspects of specific goods or services. It is also essential to know the market of products matching environmental requirements. The contracting authority has to estimate realistically its objectives and do research to find out if there is such supplier or producer in the market which can propose the desirable product and if such product can be purchased for a reasonable price.

In order to implement greener procurement, it is suggested to use the method of step-by-step transition – to begin with a small scope of products having clear effect on environment or having more available alternatives.

It is necessary to pay attention that possibility to solve environmental and social problems raises discrimination problem, because technical specifications used to define the contract can be beneficial only for particular suppliers. In order to avoid such situations, contracting authority must strictly follow the main public procurement principles.

Variants

Environment-friendly products in some cases can be more expensive than products that don’t contain this feature. Therefore, when defining the subject matter of a contract, contracting authorities have to make optimal decision regarding their financial opportunities and desire to make the procurement greener. In this case the contracting authority can allow bidder to submit variants as it is foreseen under the provisions of the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on Public Procurement (Article 26). Variants also assist when you have doubts if the necessary green products exist in the market at all.

When using variants, first of all contracting authorities should define the standard subject matter meeting minimum requirements. Besides this definition of the subject matter contracting authorities can define one or more variants of alternative subject matter, such as better implementation of environmental requirements or application of particular production process, which were not obligatory in standard definition.

In this way contracting authorities can estimate which of the variants is the most suitable to them according to environmental, social and financial approaches.

The contracting authority must already indicate in the contract notice whether or not it authorizes variants. If it is allowed to submit variants, contracting authority evaluates only the tenders meeting minimum requirements and awards contract according to the economically most advantageous tender criteria.